New data released Wednesday by research firm Gartner shows Apple as the No. 7 overall worldwide cell phone maker, with a total 2.7 percent market share.

Gartner's numbers show Apple having sold 8.4 million iPhones in the first calendar quarter of 2010, listed as "terminal sales to end users." The total is less than the 8.75 million handset sales Apple reported for the January-through-March period in its quarterly earnings.

Gartner's figures show Apple growing from 3.9 million iPhones sold in the first quarter of 2009, when the company had a 1.5 percent share of the total cell phone market. The 2010 numbers show Apple behind rivals Motorola, Research in Motion and Nokia.

The numbers, however, contradict those from earlier this week released by iSuppli, which showed Apple edging Motorola to become the No. 6 overall cell phone maker in the world. Motorola, in iSuppli's tally, came in eighth. The iSuppli numbers were listed as shipments in the first quarter of 2010, while Gartner's tally cites sales.

Both sets of data agree on the top cell phone maker, Nokia, with well over 100 million handsets moved in the quarter. Samsung came in second and LG took third in both.

Gartner said Apple saw a 112.2 percent increase in mobile device sales in the first quarter of 2010, representing its strongest quarter ever.

"Growth came partly from new communication service providers in established markets, such as the UK, and stronger sales in new markets such as China and South Korea," said Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. "The second quarter of 2010 will be a very important one for Apple. We expect that Apple will present its new iPhone in June during its Worldwide Developer Conference, which will be the first to feature the latest release of the iPhone OS that includes welcome improvements for developers and users, such as multitasking."

Apple was also cited as a winner in the mobile operating system market, representing 15.4 percent of all smartphones sold to end users in the first three months of 2010. Apple was behind only Nokia's Symbian, in first, and Research in Motion, in second, with the iPhone maker taking third. Apple was one of only two OS vendors among the top five in the world to increase its market share year-over-year.

The other platform that saw an increase was Google's Android, which grew from just a 1.6 percent market share in 2009 to 9.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010. Smartphones represented 17.3 percent of all mobile handset sales in the three months to start 2010, up from 13.6 percent a year prior.

The numbers show that Android's current market share of 9.6 percent is less than Apple's was a year ago, when the iPhone held 10.5 percent of the mobile OS market. Android's first-quarter 2010 sales of 5.2 million are also less than the 8.4 million iPhone OS smartphone sales reported by Gartner.

But Android also moved ahead of Microsoft's Windows Mobile for the first time ever in the three-month period, according to Gartner.

"As seen with the iPad and web books based on Google's Android platform, mobile OS ecosystems are developing and will move beyond smartphones to continue to deliver consumer value and a rich user experience," said Roberta Cozza, principal research analyst at Gartner.

Of course, since Symbian and RIM don't have iPod Touch or iPads running their OS, the addressable market for app developers isn't fully represented by this chart. And while the Android is starting to see additional form factors, the jury is still out how big the addressable market is for a single binary distribution of an app in the Android marketplace. (ie. The first two Android tablets can't run Marketplace apps, and Android phones have many different versions in active use.)

In other words, Apple appears to be playing a slightly different game than the others by not just chasing market share. I think they learned their lessons on how to attract developers after years of the Macintosh being a tiny percentage but disproportionately influential.

The numbers, however, contradict those from earlier this week released by iSuppli, which showed Apple edging Motorola to become the No. 6 overall cell phone maker in the world. Motorola, in iSuppli's tally, came in eighth. The iSuppli numbers were listed as shipments in the first quarter of 2010, while Gartner's tally cites sales.

To a trained reporter, this should not be a surprise. Both numbers are estimates. Even the US Bureau of Census data, e.g., the 10Y US Census, which is quite extensive (employing several tens of thousands of census staff) are themselves estimates, perhaps with much less margin of error than that of Gartner and iSuppli.

More than likely, if they included the margin of error, the difference between some adjacent rankings would be insignificant.

At least, this headline is more objective with respect to relative ranking:

Ps. Probably most important in this article is how Apple has succeeded in the Japanese market that is notoriously 'Japan-centric' when it comes to phones/tech! It shows just how good a product the iPhone really is!

Hmm, firstly last time i've checked there were several iPhone models, secondly the iPhone can be available on multiple carriers outside the US (e.g. France with Orange and SFR).

I think these numbers help put things in perspective: nonetheless the everyday free advertisement, the iPhone has only 2.6% of the worldwide market share, with Apple nowadays still selling twelve time less than Nokia. Yet it won't stop silly so-called "journalists" and editors to compare everything to the iPhone (lately Android handsets), like if it was anywhere near the top: obviously it isn't, being a distant third even in the US.

Quote:

Originally Posted by digitalclips

Anyone have the chart for phone makes sorted by net profit on their phone sales world wide and in USA?

Be sure that Apple is making more money off your back than any other phone makers with their customers: I guess that it is time to celebrate (if you are a shareholder, that is).